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THE COLONY 
OF MASSACHUSETTS LOYALISTS 

AT 

BRISTOL, ENGLAND 



BY 

PROF. WILBUR H. SIEBERT 

OF THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 



BOSTON 

1912 



n 



% 



THE COLONY 
OF MASSACHUSETTS LOYALISTS 

AT 

BRISTOL, ENGLAND 



BY 

PROF. WILBUR H. SIEBERT 

OF THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 



BOSTON 

1912 






From the 

Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 

FOR January, 1912 



Girt 
Author 
(l*R-ien) 

MAR K k9U 



c 



THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOYALISTS 
AT BRISTOL, ENGLAND 

The port of Bristol, England, early became a resort of Ameri- 
can loyalists, and continued so both during and after the 
Revolution. Thomas Hutchinson, recently governor of Massa- 
chusetts Bay and himself a fugitive in England, made a brief 
visit there with his son Elisha on January lo, 1775, and 
found another New England refugee, one of the Waldos, already 
living there. After viewing the town, the governor declared it 
to be "well accommodated with well built houses for lodgings," 
but outside of three or four small squares he discovered no 
elegant residences "fit for a first-rate tradesman to live in." ^ 
The attractiveness of Bristol for Americans was expressed by 
Hutchinson after a second visit, which he made to the place 
over two years later, when he remarked significantly: "The 
manners and customs of the people are very like those of the 
people of New England, and you might pick out a set of Boston 
Selectmen from any of their churches." ^ The fact that living 
was cheaper there than in many other communities was an ad- 
ditional attraction of weight. 

Already in 1775, loyaKsts were landing at Bristol or passing 
through on their travels about the country. Col. Benjamin 
Pickman of Salem arrived in April or May, having sailed from 
his home town five weeks earlier.^ A Boston shipmaster, by 
the name of Johnson, also came in this year with his wife and 
children;^ and before the summer was over a group of New 
Englanders, consisting of "Mr. Amory and wife, Quincy, 
Greene, Sears, and Callahan and wife," visited Bristol — 
probably having just arrived from America — and thence 
made an excursion to Aylesbury, the place where Sir Francis 
Bernard was then residing.^ Before the lapse of the year, the 

^ Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, 1. 346. ^ Ibid. 11. 148. 

' Stark, Loyalists of Massachusetts, 266. 

* Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, 11. 271. ^ Ibid. i. 513. 



nucleus of a loyalist colony had formed at Bristol, its members 
being James Boutineau and family of Boston, one of the Auch- 
mutys, Mrs. Borland and family of Cambridge, one of the 
Waldos, already mentioned, and possibly others.^ During the 
next two years this group was evidently growing, for the 
Salem refugee, Samuel Curwen, who was an occasional visitor 
at Bristol and at times a resident there, mentions additional 
names of his fellow colonials who were living in the town.^ 
Under date of September 29, 1777, he reports having spent 
the evening at Mr. Henry Barnes', "where he took tea with 
thirteen Americans"; ^ and a week later he writes to his friend, 
the Rev. Isaac Smith at Sidmouth: "The number of our country 
folks here is eighteen, viz.: Mr. Boutineau and lady, Mr. 
Benjamin Faneuil and lady, Judge Sewall and lady, Mr. Barnes 
and lady and neice, Mr. Fenton and daughter and son, Mr. Fr. 
Waldo, Mr. Timmins, Col. Hatch's two daughters at school, 
and myself." ^ 

The variation in names given by Mr. Curwen in his references 
at various periods to calls, teas, dinners and evenings at quad- 
rille, shows that the loyalist circle in Bristol was enlarging, al- 
though removals to other towns and occasionally death tended 
to keep down the number. It is also noteworthy that the 
names which appear in Curwen 's Journal are almost exclu- 
sively those of exiles from Massachusetts. From other sources, 
however, we know that loyalists from other American colonies 
dropped into Bristol, though there is no evidence to show 
that they became permanent residents there. In Decem- 
ber, 1778, Judge Howard (probably Chief Justice Martin 
Howard of North Carolina) arrived from New York ; ^ late 
in the following July, Lieutenant Governor William Bull 
of South Carolina was in -Bristol; ^ as was also Peter Van 
Schaack of Kinderhook, New York, about three and a half 
months later still. ^ 

Two years after the list of eighteen names given above, 
Curwen begins (September 24, 1779) a new series of entries 
relating to Bristol: the new names are readily recognized as 

* Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, i. 536; 11. 18. 

^ Curwen, Journal and Letters, 74, 76-77, 78, 141, 143-144. 

» Ibid. 155. ^ IbU. 156. 

^ ?)a\Ane, American Loyalists {c^. 1847), 369; Curwen, Journal and Letters, 20J. 

' Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, 11. 269. ' Ibid. 293. 



those of Massachusetts loyalists.^ In a letter written April 
19, 1780, Curwen presents another census of Americans in 
Bristol as follows: "Col. [Thomas] Oliver [late lieutenant 
governor of Massachusetts] and six daughters; Mr. R. Lech- 
mere, his brother Nicholas, wife and two daughters; Mr. John 
Vassal, wife and neice. Miss Davis; Mr. Barnes, wife and neice; 
Mr. Arbuthnot; Mr. Nathaniel Coffin, wife and family; Mr. 
Robert Hallowell, wife and children; Judge Sewall, wife, sister, 
and two sons; Samuel Sewall, with his kinsman, Mr. Faneuil, 
and wife; Mr. Francis Waldo and Mr. Simpson, together with 
Mrs. Borland, a son and three daughters." Curwen concludes 
his list with the statement: "I send this by young Gardner, 
who with Mr. Leavitt and Capt. Carpenter leaves us to-morrow, 
and will shift for their passage to America as they can."^ Ac- 
cording to this census, the Bristol colony had now reached 
between forty and fifty members. 

The list could not have been complete: for George Inman 
and wife of Philadelphia arrived in Bristol from London in 
March, or about a month before Curwen wrote the letter above 
quoted. There they remained "for the greater part of the time 
till after Christmas." Mr. Inman relates that he and his wife 
met many of the American families settled in the town, and 
gives the following names: "Thomas Ohver, John Vassals, 
Lechmere, Sewal, Bob Holbrook, Nat. Coffin, who died soon 
after, Mrs. Borland, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Fennel [Faneuil], Mr. 
Barnes, Mr. Coulson, and Mrs. Merchant, our friend Betsy 
Davis who resided with her aunt Mrs. Vassall. But [with] some 
of these," he goes on to remark, "by some means or other, a 
coolness took place, after which my visits to them were more 
out of form than friendship." He adds that "in August of 
this y'r [1780] R. Temple arrived at Bristol in a flag of truce 
from Bost. with his family, whom I saw and spent an evening 
with at the White Lyon." ^ It is notable that several of the 
names mentioned by Inman, in addition to his own, do not 
appear in Curwen's list. 

^ Curwen, Journal and Letters, 221, 224-226, 235, 236. 

2 Ihid. 237, 238. 

' George Inman, "Narrative of the American Revolution" in The Penn. Maga- 
zine of Hist, and Biog., vii. 246, 247. A letter from Jonathan Sewall of August 
24, 1780, also mentions the arrival of Mr. R. Temple and family at Bristol "in 
thirty-two days from Boston." Curwen, Journal and Letters, 271, 276. 



In the same month in which Mr. Temple and his family 
came to Bristol, James Russell was reported as a prospective 
settler. Curwen communicates the multiplied good fortune 
of this gentleman, who, he says, ''by lucky captures by a letter 
of mark has realized fifteen thousand pounds sterling, is soon 
to be settled a Bristol merchant, and bound in the matrimonial 
chain to Mr. R. Lechmere's second daughter, Mary." ^ Whether 
many members of the colony engaged in the commerical activ- 
ities of this thriving centre, we do not know. It is likely that 
the majority of them had private resources which they were 
able to supplement, in some instances at least, with an annuity 
from the government. For example. Governor Oliver, Curwen, 
and Samuel Sewall were recipients of pensions from the royal 
treasury, although we learn that the Governor's pension was 
"lessened £ioo, out of £300," when the revision of allowances 
to loyalist refugees was effected early in 1783.^ Those who were 
without private resources found it very difficult to get along. 
A case in point was that of Robert Hallowell, of whom his 
brother Benjamin wrote to Edward Winslow, February 10, 
1784: "Your worthy friend Bobby continues still at Bristol 
on account of the cheapness of living, and being amongst a 
number of friends who use every means in their power to be 
of service to him, the little money which he has been able with 
great industry to pick up added to the allowance of £120 a 
year Government, he is able to rub along." ^ 

The group of loyaUsts at Bristol held together for some 
years after the close of the American Revolution, and con- 
tinued to enjoy social intercourse among themselves in an unpre- 
tentious way. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. Henry Barnes 
of Marlborough, : Massachusetts, who lived first in Canon's 
Marsh and afterwards in a "grand old edifice" on King Street, 
from which they could view "the Play House, the Assembly 
House, the Merchants Hall and the Merchants Library." While 
limited in means, they were nevertheless able to participate in 
the "routs" and other social diversions of the time. Some of 
the letters of Mrs. Barnes contain entertaining accounts of the 
New England circle in which she moved. On April i, 1786, 
she wrote to her friends, the Misses Barker: "Wee have seven- 

^ Curwen, Journal and Letters, 264. ^ Ibid. 367, 368. 

' Raymond, Winslow Papers, 166. 



teen American familys in Bristol, very Genteel well bred 
People, all of one heart and one mind. In this circle we are 
treated with Cordiality and respect, being quite upon a footing 
with them in the stile of Vissiting which is no more than Tea 
and cards — a little parade (to be sure) is nessisary upon these 
ocations in order to keep up the Ball, but as it is not attended 
with much Expence we readily consent to follow the Lead." ^ 

^ Death began to invade the ranks of this group early in its 
history. James Boutineau died before the middle of May 
1778,' Robert Temple before 1783,3 and Nathaniel Coffin about 
a year later.^ Other members survived for some years. Harriet, 
the wife of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Oliver and daughter 
of Colonel John Vassal, passed away in i8o8,« and was followed 
on May 6, 1811, by Samuel Sewall.« The decease of Lieutenant 
Governor Oliver occurred on November 29, 1815/ while that 
of Joseph Waldo came the next April, the latter being ninety- 
four years of age.^ 

Most of these persons, Uke most of their fellow-countrymen 
in Bristol, were from Boston. But other towns and other 
colonies were represented. Governor and Mrs. Oliver, Colonel 
and Mrs. Vassal, and doubtless Mrs. Borland were Cambridge 
people. Judge Jonathan Sewall came from Charlestown, Massa- 
chusetts, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Barnes from Marlborough, Massa- 
chusetts, Thomas Coulson from Falmouth, Maine, JohnFenton 
from New Hampshire, and John Inman and wife from Phila- 
delphia. A number of them, if not the great majority, had 
been transported to Halifax with the British troops at the time 
of the evacuation of Boston in March, 1776, and from there had 
gone to England. This was the case with Lieutenant Governor 
Ohver and Robert Hallowell. 

Among the members of the Bristol colony we find former 
merchants, lawyers and officials, including a clerk in the court 
of common pleas, a cashier and a comptroller of the customs at 
Boston, two mandamus councillors, and the last royal lieutenant 
governor and president of the council of Massachusetts. Some 

1 Tiffany and Lesley, Letters of James Murray, Loyalist, 250 

2 Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, 11. 205. 
' Curwen, Journal and Letters, 497. 

7 it?- ^^"^^ o u. ' ^^^- 5^5. « Ibid. 506. 

Ibid. 515; babme, American Loyalists, 492, 497. 
* Ibid. 483. 



of the most eminent and respectable families of New England 
were represented at Bristol, among these being the Sewall, 
Vassal, Russell and OHver families. Of the subsequent careers 
of individual members we know but Httle: Jonathan Sewall 
emigrated from Bristol to New Brunswick in 1788, where he 
was chosen judge of admiralty. Sabine reports that he died in 
that colony in 1796.^ 

^ Sabine, American Loyalists, 609. 



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